Pak JIT Visit Was Based On Principle Of Reciprocity: Govt

28/04/2016 6:32 PM IST
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Updated
15/07/2016 8:26 AM IST

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Hindustan Times via Getty Images

NEW DELHI, INDIA - MARCH 27: A five-member team of Pakistani investigators (JIT) arrives at T-3 airport to carry forward the probe into the brazen Pathankot Air Base attack on March 27, 2016 in New Delhi, India. Joint Investigative Team from Pakistan comprising representatives from the powerful Inter Services Intelligence or ISI, Military Intelligence and Police arrived in Delhi today. The team from Pakistan formed on instructions of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be the site of the terror strike and will also question the witnesses. Six Pakistani terrorists who had crossed over into Punjab were killed in the attack. The National Investigation Agency says it has established the identities of those six but also those who regulated their actions from Pakistani soil. (Photo by Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

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Pakistan has been clearly told that it should allow an Indian probe team to visit that country in connection with Pathankot terror attack as reciprocity was the principle on which Pakistan's JIT was allowed to visit here, government told the Rajya Sabha today.

Minister of State for External Affairs Gen V K Singh also insisted that the meeting between the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries here recently was "no formal talks".

Singh's response came after opposition members attacked the government over its handling of Pathankot issue and questioned whether NIA will be allowed to visit Pakistan since its JIT (Joint Investigation Team) already came here in connection with Pathankot terror attack probe.

The members also questioned whether India will be allowed access to interrogate Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar in connection with the terror attack.

"So far as we are concerned, our High Commissioner had conveyed formally to Pakistan Foreign Ministry that the terms of reference of the (JIT) visit are broadly agreed to with the proviso that they would be on the basis of reciprocity and followed in accordance with the extant legal provisions," the Minister said in his reply.

He insisted that this has been "very clearly conveyed" to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Pakistan.

Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, who met his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar here on Tuesday for a "courtesy" meeting, was also conveyed this, Singh said.

"It was conveyed to the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, when he unofficially on a courtesy visit, met our our Foreign Secretary here that they have to look into our NIA visiting Pakistan. He has to go back and take a formal view and convey to us," he said.

"...What appears in the newspapers, we are not concerned about it. So far as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan is concerned, it has not denied the reciprocity issue," he said.

Jaishankar and Chaudhry met here on Tuesday on the sidelines of a regional conference.